444 Tasting Notes
Office Water Tea This smells very nice and rosy as soon as you open the bag! Steeping, the scent is rose, but not overwhelmingly flowery and floral. The taste follows suit. It is a gentle rose flavor, not too over the top at all. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is scared of rose teas or has had bad experiences in the past.
Flavors: Rose
Preparation
So the office water comes out to about 165. Not great for black teas, but I think I’ll bring in cheaper teas, and flavored black teas. And of course, there are teas that like that temperature.
I tried steeping this one a little longer to make up for the water temperature. I’m not sure if it was that which caused this tea to not go so well, or this just isn’t a great tea. It left a bitter, tart, almost metallic taste in my mouth. I won’t rate this, or any tea I try at the office, bad just in case its the waters fault and not the tea.
Flavors: Metallic
Preparation
Another tea made with the unidentified-temperature office water. This one tasted about like I remember, so the water is at least hot enough to make semi-decent black tea. The tea was definitely a bit weaker than normal, but the chocolate and mint flavors almost came through better because of it. I’m definitely going to bring a thermometer with me tomorrow to test out the water temperature. I would love to be able to drink tea all day at work, but knowing what I should and shouldn’t bring will be very helpful.
Flavors: Chocolate, Mint
Preparation
I got a sample of this in my monthly Love With Food box. The package says to brew “just under boiling.” I’m no green tea expert, but that seems too hot to me. However, it didn’t matter either way, since I’m at way work and only have one “hot” setting here. I think I may bring my thermometer and find out exactly what temperature it is. Whatever it is, it worked out well enough for this tea. Brewing, there was a strong pineapple scent. I’m almost not getting that in the taste though. At the very beginning of the sip, its almost as though a pineapple just rolled by my face; the tiniest hint of pineapple is there. Then it’s all green tea. And I’m not getting any of the mint everyone else mentioned! Overall not terrible, but not great.
Any time I drink a Whispering Pines tea, I feel like I should be wandering through a forest. I’m sure its at least partially the name and vibe that the tea company has. But I know its also the wonderful and unique ingredients and flavors in all of their teas. This one is no different.
It is smoky, as some others have mentioned, but in a very gentle way. I feel like that’s the word I would use to describe this whole tea: gentle. I’m having difficulty saying what individual flavors I got out of this, I will need to try it again and pay close attention.
Preparation
This is a new local company that I’ve seen popping up a lot in stores near me. I’m always excited for new local tea places! If anyone is interested in trying these teas please let me know :) (website: http://www.whitecloudworldteas.com/)
I cold brewed this overnight. I definitely added too much for this. I forgot how much oolong poofs up! I can get the strawberry flavor, which is a bit sweet and candyish. But the tea is a bit too bitter. I will try this again with about half as much as I used!
Flavors: Strawberry
Preparation
Backlog: This is my first flavored matcha! Unfortunately I don’t really have blender access. So I put some of this and some milk in a seal able cup and shook it up! I feel like I put in much more than the required amount, but it tasted like milk up until I added a bunch in. I’m not sure how accurate of a representation this is since I probably committed some horrible taboo by doing all that. Anyway, this was reeeeally sweet. I don’t know if I would say that I got caramel exactly, but definitely lots of sweetness, almost to the point of too sweet. I would like to compare other flavors, and try different methods, to see how well I did with this one.
I’ve had trouble tasting some of the flavors, too. I add more than it calls for as well. I also found that it blended better and had a stronger flavor once I started first mixing the matcha with hot water (about 175° and I blend it with my milk frother thingy) and then add ice and milk and shake it.
I have found that cold steeping the matcha in milk overnight and THEN shaking it up makes a more flavorful and less chalky beverage :)
TTB Tea 14: I tried this one both hot and cold brewed. I like both, but I enjoy the cold brewed better. The mango comes out a little more, and the rooibos actually contributes to the flavor instead of drowning it out. The mango flavor isn’t intense, but tasty.